The Doctorates ‘Second Home, Seventh Loan’ EP

Squarehead Studios are recording some of Kent’s most promising indie bands of late and the latest offering from the roster is The Doctorates’ new EP ‘Second Home, Seventh Loan’. The three school friends from Canterbury’s new four-track EP has already garnered frequent attention and airplay from BBC Introducing in Kent as well as Huw Stephens’ Radio 1 slot in early September, and it’s easy to see why with their most established effort to date.

‘Put Away The Medicine’, which is the first single to be released from the EP, channels the swaggering croon of Julian Casablancas through lead singer Nick Tompkins’ streetwise drone, yet the song itself is underpinned by the angst-driven guitar lines and infectious melody which wouldn’t be out of place on The Vaccines’ latest record.

The Doctorates’ 70s punk influences are evident throughout the EP, most notably the energetic ‘Backseat’ which echoes modern indie darlings, Spector, yet is dripping in gritty adolescent charm with the thrashing rhythm section driving the song from start to finish.

Tompkins explains that the “melodies are pretty bright and energetic, whereas the lyrics are bleak and cynical” which hints at the band’s potential scope, so keep an eye out for the release of new material later in the year.

The Doctorates ‘Put Away The Medicine’

By Thomas Curtis-Horsfall.